The Hired Girl in Mock Newbery 2026

Apr 08, 2015 Monica Edinger rated it it was amazing

From my post revealing the cover:

Fans of Laura Amy Schlitz are a patient bunch. We know that it takes time for her beautiful, unique, and complex stories to come into being. Happily, the wait is always worth it. Such is the case for The Hired Girl, out this fall from Candlewick Press. In the form of a diary, the entries are written by the only daughter of a hardscrabble Pennsylvanian widower farmer with four sons. Eager to read, write, learn, and gain knowledge of every sort, 14 year-old Joan S ...more

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Nov 01, 2015 Mary Lee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2015, ya, coming-of-age, race, characters

I'll miss Joan/Janet. We ate breakfast together for the past couple of weeks. She's a delight. My teen self adored her!

Some quotes:

"I'd rather be impetuous than placid any day." p.123

"Being proud belongs in novels. In real life, you eat the cinnamon toast, even if your heart is burning." p.377

"Once someone reads your diary, you're never the same again. You realize you're not alone when you write, and you start to write for the person who will read your words." p.381 ...more

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Jul 08, 2015 Wendy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2015-award-possibilities

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really didn't care for this... not sure how much I want to pile on. I haven't reread any of the blog discussions so I don't know whether my thoughts are original or anything.

I remember there was plenty of talk about how a couple of insensitive references to American Indians were fatal flaws that should keep this out of awards contention. Well, the book is full of similar racial/ethnic slurs and misunderstandings, which in context make it clear that those references were intentional to make a p I really didn't care for this... not sure how much I want to pile on. I haven't reread any of the blog discussions so I don't know whether my thoughts are original or anything.

I remember there was plenty of talk about how a couple of insensitive references to American Indians were fatal flaws that should keep this out of awards contention. Well, the book is full of similar racial/ethnic slurs and misunderstandings, which in context make it clear that those references were intentional to make a point, though I don't know that the point is really clear enough. But that's really a moot point for me, because I just didn't think the book was very good.

Joan talks/writes throughout just like Anne of Green Gables, something much-touted by happy reviewers--but she talks like Anne at the beginning of the first book, before Anne learns how annoying and childish that is . In other words, gag me. Big words and depths of despair and so on.

A lot of the book just doesn't make SENSE. I wasn't sure if we're supposed to sympathize with Joan all the times she says how mean or judgmental or whatever Mrs. Rosenbach is, because I didn't find a single instance of Mrs. Rosenbach being anything but completely fair (and often extremely generous).

I thought maybe Schlitz was too taken with Downton Abbey and that's where some of this comes from. But most of those people had worked for the family for years. I couldn't believe it when I realized Joan had done all of those idiotic things within the space of a few weeks. She's the worst servant who ever lived, pretty much.

And she's a snob, a complete and utter snob, and it doesn't seem to me like she ever gets over it (or any of her other character flaws). I can take a flawed protagonist, but I felt like everything I thought was a flaw, the book felt was just fine. Except the conversion attempts, I guess. But still, at the end, doesn't Joan just give up and still secretly think the Rosenbachs are going to hell, but she has to let them?

The worst thing Joan does is steal the sonnet, rewrite it, and deliver it, I think. But in the end that turns out well for everyone? what? No wonder she never realizes how awful she is.

But the worst thing the BOOK does is let Joan get away with pretending her father beat her up (which benefits her). I found that incredibly awful. Her father is mean and doesn't understand her and she's probably right that he didn't love her. Some of what he does is emotional abuse. But he never, ever hits her, and--look--the way she sometimes spoke to him, it wouldn't be surprising if he WANTED to hit her. Maybe I'm totally callous, but when I think about the time and place, and that her father let her stay in school until she was 14 even though she was needed at home--that was actually really generous of him. It occurs to me that possibly there's a segment of the audience that actually thinks him burning her books was WORSE than hitting her and that's why the book gets away with this egregious (to me) lie.

She also complains that her brothers are mean to her and don't care about her. There's little evidence of that, except the one brother who smirks when he doesn't wipe his feet; when she gets injured, all three of them rally around her. Even the "mean" brother speeds off for a doctor. When she asks for the egg money she gets mad because her brothers aren't supporting her, as she thought they were at first--instead they ask to be paid something also. Well, why the heck not? What was wrong with that? The apparent nail in the coffin for her relationship with her brothers is when she tries to manipulate them by shouting that her father wouldn't dare hit her, thinking they'll come to her defense, and they don't. Well... a. they probably know her father isn't going to hit her and b. what are they supposed to do? They work at least as hard as she does and clearly suffer both emotional AND physical abuse from their father. There would have been consequences for all of them. But if a father beats his sons and not his daughter, wouldn't you expect some resentment? And they don't even have as much freedom as she does--she gets to plan her own day and choose the meals, even though the work is hard.

Finally, I was raised Catholic and was squicked by the portrayal of Catholicism in the book. Bizarrely, I've seen this praised. My first thought was that it didn't resemble any kind of non-pathological Catholicism I've ever heard or read about, past or present, but coincidentally I just started reading a book about Rose Kennedy and it sounds like this is the kind of Catholic she was taught to be, around the same time period. So I guess it's period accurate, even if it is gross. Except that Rose Kennedy became that way after some really intense and creepy Catholic schooling in her late teens. Joan attended church sporadically and had never even made her first communion, so would she really have talked about how she had a "great devotion to the Blessed Mother" and all that? She never even had a rosary.

Sigh. I haven't even gone into David and how he never gets enough comeuppance for my taste for being a complete Edwardian douchebag (what's up with him sending postcards to Joan from Paris? yuck) or some of the other stuff.

The second star is for Malka, who is totally a 4-5 star character, and a few funny bits. And though I didn't think the actual writing was up to Schlitz's previous standards, it isn't bad. Also, I liked the plotline of how everyone at home thought Joan was ugly, but give her a different setting, social circle, and purpose in life, and she comes into her own. ...more

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Jul 17, 2015 Kris Springer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-newbery-reads

For readers 12 and older, especially those who loved Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and Jane Eyre. Joan is 14 and has a tough life. She takes care of home and garden and animals on her family farm, and cooks and cleans for her 3 older brothers and her father. Her mother died of a poor heart/exhaustion when Joan was 10. Joan is romantic, intelligent, and loves to read and learn. Unfortunately, her father does not share her interests and has no sympathy for Joan's interests. Things come to a h ...more

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Dec 10, 2015 Karen Gibson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2015-115-book-challenge

Beautifully written book. I loved it!!!

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Dec 02, 2015 Robynn marked it as to-read

Mock Newbery December read.

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Oct 21, 2015 Leslie rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, youngadult, historical_fiction

This was my book--historical fiction with a spirited, thoughtful narrator (who loves to read!) My favorite thing about this book was the evidence of amazing research that Schlitz did to put the reader squarely in a time and place. The exploration of religion was interesting, but a little slow at times. As an adult reader, I knew the direction that Janet's relationship with David was going...I'm wondering if young readers will pick up on this and how they will connect with this book. ...more

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